Dr. John Sullivan

Dr John Sullivan is an internationally known HR thought-leader who specializes in bold and high business impact and strategic Talent Management solutions for large corporations. A prolific author with over 900 articles and 10 books covering all areas of Talent Management, he has written over a dozen white papers, conducted over 50 webinars, dozens of workshops and he has been featured in over 35 videos. In addition, Dr. Sullivan is an engaging corporate speaker who has excited audiences at over 300 organizations in 30 countries. His ideas have appeared in every major business source including The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, and others.
Fast Company called him the "Michael Jordan of Hiring,” Staffing.org called him “the father of HR metrics,” and SHRM called him “One of the industries most respected strategists.” He was selected among HR’s “Top 10 Leading Thinkers” and he was ranked #8 among the top 25 online influencers in Talent Management. He served as the Chief Talent Officer of Agilent Technologies, the HP spinoff with 43,000 employees, and was CEO of the Business Development Center, a minority business consulting firm in Bakersfield, CA. Since 1982, he has also been a Professor of Management at San Francisco State University. His articles can be found all over the Internet and on his popular website www.drjohnsullivan.com and on www.ERE.Net.

The “Give Me 5 Names” tool is easy, fast, and free. You start by proactively approaching individual top performers in the target job area, but instead of asking them the standard question “do you know anyone?” (which usually draws a blank), you instead stimulate their recollection by using an effective memory stimulation trick known as “a retrieval cue.”

What you do is stimulate the employee’s memory by asking them a more targeted question like “name the best innovator who you know in this field. Almost without exception, providing that “cue” (innovator) will result in them providing you with the name of an innovator who they know. Read more…

“Death by interview” is the harsh but unfortunately all-too accurate name that I give to the majority of corporate interview processes because of the way that they literally abuse candidates.

“Death by interview” is worth closer examination because harsh treatment during interviews impacts almost every working American, simply because each one of us is subjected to many interviews during our lifetime.

The hiring interview shares a love/hate status, where even though applicants initially hope to be granted an interview, once they are finally notified, they almost universally undergo a wave of stress and painful memories that causes them to stop looking forward to them. Read more…

You may think that making quick hiring decisions would lower the quality of your hire, but the reality is that in most cases, the reverse is true.

The very best candidates are in high demand. They are likely to receive multiple offers. And because they are decisive individuals, they are likely to accept another offer before most corporate processes are only one-third completed. Read more…

Editor’s Note: It’s a TLNT holiday tradition to count down the most popular posts of the year. This is No. 19. Our regular content will return next Monday. Happy New Year!

First of two parts

Imagine being assigned a physician and then purposely rejecting them solely because they were “overqualified” for your medical situation. Well that’s exactly what happens when hiring managers reject candidates who have “too many” qualifications.

There is simply no excuse in this new era of data-based recruiting to adhere to this old wives’ tales” in hiring. I have written in the past about the cost of rejecting “job jumpers” and in this article, I will focus on the false assumption that hiring candidates who are “overqualified” will result in frustrated employees who will quickly quit. Read more…

And although every company is different, you should focus on targeting individuals to recruit who are hard to replace, those who are innovators, those that now hold or will soon hold leadership positions, and those that have “future skills” that will be extremely valuable in one year to 18 months.

You should also realize that whoever you target, the ones that the managers at your competitors fight the hardest to keep are the ones that you really want. Read more…

The recruiting function is unique among business functions because almost no one in recruiting can actually name even a few of the different strategies that are available to the chief recruiting leader.

But this is not about the complete list of recruiting strategies (that can be found here), but instead is about which strategy from among the 20 plus possibilities is the boldest and most aggressive recruiting strategy you could possibly employ. Read more…

On average, I estimate that encouraging, cajoling, and the worst part, having to hang around just to ensure that your employees are continuously working takes up to 50 percent of the average manager’s time each week.

If you don’t believe my estimate, ask a few managers to keep a work log for a few weeks if you want an accurate time for your firm. You might go a step further and ask a few of your managers if they enjoy trying to motivate and if they are good at it, because you’re likely to find that they dread every minute of it. Read more…